Smash You – The Ramones
Jailbreak – AC/DC
I was thinking about AC/DC the other day, as I’m want to do, and I realized for the first time that Jailbreak is almost a Xerox copy of the classic Gloria. Did nobody notice this while they were recording the song? “You know what, guys…this sounds exactly like one of the most popular songs in the world, maybe we should mix it up a bit?” Okay I’m lying – I wasn’t thinking about AC/DC, I was wondering how the brought Jessie and Kelly back to Saved by the Bell for that last season without acknowledging where they’d been, or that Zack had been dating a man (Tori.)
Broken Pieces – The Undecided
I’ve yammered here several times about the JMU mid-80’s music scene I’m still in love with, and while The Undecided’s full-length debut doesn’t stack up with DT and the Shakes or Rational Herdsmen’s eps of the same year, this cut is my desert island cut out of them all. Chopping rhythm, cool story, chorus that’s almost indecipherable. Check, check, check – wrap me up in a blanket filled with last night’s Colt 45 and a “mature” woman who drinks battery acid, and I’m home.
I Can’t Pretend – The Barracudas
More from the Roots of Powerpop! slice I’ve been hammering away at here. Dedicated in these last days of the election to Sarah Palin, the most famous barracuda of them all. As in “I can’t pretend anymore that I respect you just so I can get into them caribou beef flaps (unless your pregnant daughter takes pictures? Levi delivering pizza at the door?)”
S’Cool Days – Stanley Frank
In 1992 I was in San Antonio at Tech School for the Air Guard, and one weekend on leave we found some dumpy mall and I walked into a music store that had about 14 records and found THIS ALBUM The cd was filled with songs I had either already heard that had changed my life, or with songs I had heard OF but never gotten a hold of. I’m still stunned that such a collection existed and I found it in some deserted mall in Texas. And I look back now, and it had only been 15 years since 1977, or one year closer than today to when I got the cd. Back then you had to find and fight for music like that, and 1977 sounded like 1827, a million years ago. Things have changed; everything is at your fingertips and 1992 seems like yesterday. Except now women can vote. That makes me sad :(
Words of Love – The Beatles
I was watching the latest celebrity rehab shitacular thing with Dr. Drew for a few minutes, and Gary “You thought I was batshit before, check this shit out!” Busey was on it. Which made me think of Buddy Holly, but as I was choosing a Buddy song I thought of this, which is one of the most amazingly dead-on, note perfect covers I’ve ever heard in my life. How proud would you think Buddy Holly would be to know that whenever someone sees Gary Busey, they think of him? Hmm. Of course, the same could be said for whichever actor gets picked to play Spencer Pratt in the inevitable I Swear I Didn’t Kill Heidi! summer blockbuster.
Love Kills – Joe Strummer
Well. So does sleeping with a woman who makes Lorena Bobbitt look like Carol Brady. But hey.
ps - how "flattering" (cough) must it be to find out that in a movie you'll be played by Chloe Webb? Yeesh. Is this almost worth not bothering to become famous in the first place?
She May Call You Up Tonight – The Left Banke
It just occurred to me that I’ve only heard two Left Banke songs in my life, and I love them both (Walk Away Renee, Pretty Ballerina.) If I’m batting a thousand with something, like Regina Spektor songs or masturbating to Valerie Malone’s bathroom introduction scene in BH 90210, why not try a third song? So I did, and this is fucking awesome too. Seems like I’ve heard it recently…in a movie, or tv show, maybe? Either way, I don’t know why I don’t put cumin on pretty much everything I eat. (Calm down ladies, don't start spraying your own necks with cumin - I mean actual "eating," not "pretending to give a shit about nuzzling your neck for thirty seconds til I can get up in your palin") (too soon?)
These Days – Paul Westerberg
Westerberg has always been vocal about his affection for the “soft rock” AM stuff that was on the radio when he was growing up, and it shows with this live version of the Nico-by-way-of-Jackson Browne slice. Which is my way of saying that I’m pretty sure Westerberg has been slapping Darryl Hannah around. All I’m saying. But then again, that would imply that Darryl Hannah has been seen in the last 15 years, so that theory's prolly out the window.
I Can’t Give Back the Love I Feel For You – Rita Wright
Super slice from the desert island box set of all box sets, the Motown joint. Disc 2 has always been my fave, but Disk 3 is close and this is my leadoff 3 cut. Devastating, accusing piano. Side note: I just read for the first time that the founder of Yale’s name was Elihu Yale. How bout that – it had never occurred to me to even wonder where the team name “Eli” came from. Which is ironic, since I have a cousin named Eli. That’s not really ironic, but then again neither is the fact that I got rejected by Yale despite my 2.3 GPA and 790 SATs. Does almost being on the yearbook staff fucking mean nothing to these elitist assholes?
2 comments:
How do you know about the JMU late 80's scene? I was googling the Rational Herdsmen and saw your references to my old band, The Undecided. Thanks for keeping this stuff around...
cause I have ears, friend!!
well, and I know Will Croxton. I grew up with his kid brother, so we'd get all that great stuff sent to us. Still love all those records, and don't like to let a "brunch" go by without spreading the word a bit. :)
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